


i'm a river (till you take the dive)

by autumn_exalted



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M, Mermaid Liam, Mild Gore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-07
Updated: 2017-02-07
Packaged: 2018-09-22 15:50:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9614873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/autumn_exalted/pseuds/autumn_exalted
Summary: "You... You're a mermaid." The boy says and Liam unthinkingly tries to flinch away but makes a noise of pain as the flinch moves his tail and therefore moves the pole. The boy jumps and looks back at Liam's tail before putting his hands up in front of him. "Whoa, hey. Calm down, mate. Okay? That..." The boy grimaces as he looks at the pole stuck in Liam's tail before he crouches down. Liam tries to stay as still as possible. Any second now. Any second and this human is going to kill him. "That doesn't look to good. Well, I mean. All in all you don't look too good, but that..." He motions to Liam's tail. "That really doesn't look good."He looks up into Liam's eyes and Liam can feel the pit of his stomach drop. The boy's face softens."Can you... Can you understan----""Please don't kill me." Liam blurts and the boy stops abruptly."What."





	

His first thought is that he's dead.

There's flashes of what happened but they're turbulent. He remembers a storm, the currents of the ocean had been trying to drag him away from his destination. He remembers a crack like thunder and pieces of wood drifting in the chaotic sea. He remembers a yell from a voice filled with terror.

He coughs up seawater and his head hurts. He tries to turn so his face isn't an inch deep in sand and is suddenly wide awake as a white hot pain shoots up along his spine and rings in his ears. He can't stop the sob of pain that escapes his cracked lips and his eyes flash open.

Turns out he's not dead. But there's a part of him that wishes he were. It's pale out but light enough to be just before dawn. The sun is hiding below the horizon and he's laying on a beach surrounded by the wreckage of a ship. There's a piece of fabric clutched in one of his hands. It looks like a piece of someone's shirt.

He tries to push himself up with just his arms and finds them shaking with exhaustion. He flops back down into place uselessly. There's sand grinding into his bare skin and he's abstractly grateful that it's so early in the morning that no humans would be out and would have found him.

He looks down at his body, taking stock of his condition. His arms are scratched up, and he can see a few large slivers of wood embedded in the thick skin but he can't really feel them. There are bruises on his torso when he brushes the mess of sand off himself, probably from being tossed around in the undercurrent.

When he looks down below his torso he can see the source of what had been the white hot pain. In the middle of his silver tail is a broken metal pole. It's punctured from the back of his tail through the front and there's a mess of congealing blood and sand surrounding the wound. If he tries to even adjust his lower half it sends another slap of pain along his nerves and he's gasping from the effort of turning himself so he can look around at where he's ended up.

There's high cliffs surrounding him, thick with green growth and rich with dark wet rock. He's on a small patch of sand, partially hidden by an overhang of the rock that's been beaten away by centuries of sea waves.

He watches as the sun slowly begins to rise from beyond the horizon. The sky is clear. His memories come to him a little more clearly the more his brain awakens.

The seals had warned him, a storm was coming in, and he'd gone to... he'd gone to do something, but he can't remember what. He'd come across a simple boat, fishermen, and he's stayed mostly below the water but the storm had arrived quickly and with little forewarning. The sky had turned dark and the air had thickened with moisture when he'd come up above the waves. The current grew stronger, the waves frothing like angry dogs. There had been a crack of thunder and then a spark of lightning that hit the boat and made it echo the thunder. Pieces has splintered off, a fire had started but was quickly put out by the thick sheets of rain that immediately began pouring.

He can't remember why he'd been so close to the ship. And his brow furrows as he tries to remember but all he comes up with is pieces of wood being thrown about in the waves and he'd been sucked under by the current. A large chunk of the wood had hit his temple and after that it had been blackness.

Why had he been so close to the ship?

As long as he's been alive that's the one rule he's almost always obeyed. Don't go close to the fishermen's ships. The humans aren't nice. They aren't gentle. They'll scoop you up in their horrid nets and they'll cut you into pieces just to try and figure out how you can breathe both in air and water. They want to know everything about how you're put together, like how your tail moves and how it's attached. But they don't want to know anything about you.

He idly plays with the fabric in his hands for a moment before he sits forward and tries to wipe away the blood and sand from around the pole in his tail.

He wonders if he could pull the pole out and make it into the water, could he get help then? But he remembers the pain of even moving the little bit he already has and he knows he'd probably black out again before he reached the water, and that'd be more dangerous than sitting here awake as he is.

If some human stumbled upon him while he was passed out again he'd probably end up getting taken and used for creepy human experiments. He'd probably be killed by the humans and his parents would never know.

He looks as closely as he can at his major injury and can't see any way that he could fix it or make it better at the moment. He's not one of the merpeople who's studied healing. The only thing he can really tell about the wound is that the pole has missed his spine, but that it's in the meaty part of his tail and that it's going to be months before he'll be able to swim properly again... If he ever manages to make it to the ocean again in the first place.

He tries to steal himself, wrapping the bloodied fabric around the pole, before he forces his arms to start moving and pulling the pole out. He stops almost immediately, biting through his lip so that the scream that's clawed it's way up from his lungs doesn't escape. His hand drops the fabric and lets go of the pole like it's an angry crab and he wraps his shaking arms around himself for a moment.

His chest quivers with unreleased sobs as the situation truly settles in. He's stuck here. He can't pull the pole out of his tail. Either he's going to die here by himself or a human will stumble upon him and kill him.

His head aches and his eyesight is blurry with tears but when he brings a hand up to his temple it comes away warm and wet and he can see the color red shining in the early morning sun. There's a sound from behind him, but nearer to the top of the cliffs and his heart stops beating for a panicked second before it picks up double time.

He cautiously looks back but doesn't see anyone at first. His body has tensed and now every part of him throbs in acute agony as all his wounds are agitated. He sees a flash of red-brown for a second before there's a scrabbling at the rocks and some smaller ones tumble down the cliffside to land in the sand.

Someone's up there.

He's well and truly dead now. Stuck as he is by the boat's pole and his other injuries.

Then a head peaks over the edge of the cliff, but it's not a human's head it's a little red-brown furry thing and Liam's shoulders relax as he recognizes that it's a human pet, a dog. He knows a few things about dogs. The dog sees him and barks, and Liam can see it's tail wagging excitedly as it runs away from the cliff side.

A few minutes later Liam can see the dog making it's way around the beach, having probably found a less steep way of getting to the beach, and it excitedly barks as it makes it way through the few pieces of wreckage and towards Liam.

It's a fluffy little thing, and it's legs are soaked with seawater and speckled with sand as it runs right up towards Liam and starts wiggling beside him. He cautiously reaches out to touch it and it opens it's mouth to make little panting sounds as it tries to hop onto Liam's chest and Liam laughs a little bit.

Then another rock falls and Liam's heart stops again.

He doesn't know how he'd forgotten. Where there are dogs, there's always people.

"Rusty? Rusty where are ya, ya rascal!" A voice yells and Liam looks down at the little excited dog in the sand beside him. He tries to shoo it away, casting anxious glances up at the cliff side but the dog doesn't listen and instead barks up at the rocks.

Another red-brown head peaks over the side, but this time it's distinctly human.

"Rust--" Liam watches as the human's eyes widen "Holy shit. Are ya okay down there? One second! I'll be right down!" The human yells and then disappears and Liam's entire body freezes.

He holds his breath, hoping against all odds the human doesn't find a way to get down here like it's dog did but it's no use, a few moments later the human is running toward Liam.

"I knew that Pa's boat 'ad been hit last night, but we'd thought we'd found all the crewmen. I don't know how we missed---" The human had been looking at his feet as he'd made his way along the beach and when he looks up he stops talking. Liam can see the human's eyes looking down at his silver tail before they flicker back up to Liam's face.

"You... You're a mermaid." The boy says and Liam unthinkingly tries to flinch away but makes a noise of pain as the flinch moves his tail and therefore moves the pole. The boy jumps and looks back at Liam's tail before putting his hands up in front of him. "Whoa, hey. Calm down, mate. Okay? That..." The boy grimaces as he looks at the pole stuck in Liam's tail before he crouches down. Liam tries to stay as still as possible. Any second now. Any second and this human is going to kill him. "That doesn't look to good. Well, I mean. All in all you don't look too good, but that..." He motions to Liam's tail. "That really doesn't look good."

He looks up into Liam's eyes and Liam can feel the pit of his stomach drop. The boy's face softens.

"Can you... Can you understan----"

"Please don't kill me." Liam blurts and the boy stops abruptly.

"What."

Liam swallows thickly, feeling his breathing quicken in panic. He leans as far away from the human as he can and bright blue eyes track his movements.

"Please. Please don't kill me." Liam tries again and the human’s hands fall down. The human's face looks confused. 

"I--I'm not going to kill you." The boy stutters out and Liam stays leaning away. The boy's dog has run over to it's human and is not pawing at one of his knees where he's crouching in the sand. The boy drops one hand to pet the dog and holds the other out to Liam. Liam flinches again but holds back the sound of pain and the boy flinches away from Liam.

"Please." Liam whispers again and the boy sits down in the sand.

"I'm not..." The boy sighs and looks up at the cliffs. "I want to help you. I promise I'm not going to hurt you or kill you or anything like that, okay?"

Liam just stares at him. Waiting for the moment this human is going to attack.

The boy swallows and his red-brown hair shines in the sunlight.

"Listen. I... I'm Niall. I live just a ways away from here. These are pieces of my Pa's boat. There was a storm last night. I just want to help you out okay? I don't like people being hurt. Even merpeople." He's looking down at his dog as he says this but with the last sentence his blue eyes look up to meet Liam's eyes. "Will you please let me help you?"

Liam tries to shake his head.

"N-no. The Elders... Humans hurt us. They take us in their nets and we never come home. They do things to us. They kill us. Humans don't help anything. They kill things." Liam hisses, trying to scare the human away by showing off his pointy teeth but the boy just gives him a sad look.

"I'm... I mean, yeah I'm a human. But I don't hurt people. I don't like hurting people. I know what it's like to have... to have humans hurt me. I wouldn't ever want to hurt anyone else." He says and he reaches out for a moment before pulling his hand away. "Just... Just stay here okay? I'm gonna go get some things to help you."

And with that the human boy picks up the dog and runs away along the beach, disappearing around a large rock.

Liam anxiously turns back to his tail. If he can pull the pole out while the humans gone maybe he can roll his way into the ocean. It wouldn't be the best, but he has to leave before that human gets back. You can't trust humans. Even ones with eyes like the ocean on a summer day. But when Liam reaches forward to desperately try and pull the pole out of his tail he only moves it an inch before he can't do it anymore.

There are tears streaming down his face and he wraps his arms tightly around himself in a facsimile of a hug.

He's not strong enough to escape this.

"Hey!" A voice startles him and he looks up to see the human from before returning with a large bundle of cloth gripped in his arms. His dog isn't with him. The human stops in front of of him and drops the bundle as he drops to his knees.

"So I don't have any way to cut the pole shorter to pull it out faster, so that part is gonna suck so so bad. But I have some stuff to sanitize the wound and stitch it closed and stuff. I was in Scouts, I know how to do stitches... or well, technically we only did stitches on like, pillow and cloth, but like. I technically know how to stitch the wound closed but like --"

"I just need to go."

Niall looks up at Liam with raised eyebrows.

"What?"

"I... I don't know what these stitches are but I can... I just need the pole out, and then to get to the water." Liam says. Maybe. If this human can help him get the pole out he could push the human away and then get to the water. It'll be his only opportunity to escape now. The human frowns.

"That's not really going to be all that sanitary, mate."

"I am not your Mate." Liam snarls and Niall puts his hands up.

"Sorry, sorry. it's a human term for friend. I... I don't know your name, I don't know what else to call you."

Liam cautiously looks at the human before sighing. "Liam."

The human blinks. "That's a... surprisingly human name."

Liam shows his teeth. "It isn't my full name. You wouldn't be able to pronounce it."

There's silence between them for a moment before Niall's eyes flicker along Liam's body.

"Do you want to fix up any of these smaller wounds, or do you wanna do this" he motions to the pole, "first?"

Liam knows that the healers will be able to fix up his injuries when he makes it back to the pod so he shakes his head and says as much.

"If you truly aren't going to kill me." He starts with and the human interrupts him.

"I don't want to kill you. I've already said this."

Liam glares at the human and the human gives him a surprisingly blinding grin. "Then the healers will be able to help with my wounds when I get to them. But I cannot go anywhere as I am now."

Niall's grin changes to a flat line on an unamused face. "Yeah, we found the crew hours ago. You've been stuck on this beach for at least nine hours." the human claps his hands together, startling Liam, and then he digs around in the bundle - which Liam discovers is some kind of bag - and pulls out gloves.

The human gives him a strained look as he puts the gloves on and stands up, stopping a foot away from Liam's tail and the pole protruding from it. The human nervously bites his lip.

"So I've said this already but I'm gonna say it again. This is really going to hurt, and I can't think of any way to make it easier with the tools I have at my disposal."

Liam lays down in the sand and close his eyes. He takes a deep breath. "Just remove it." He hisses and he feels slight pain the moment the human puts his hands on the pole.

Niall chances a glance at Liam's pained face for a moment before he takes  deep breath. "OKay, on the count of three, yeah?" He says and the merman shrugs with a grimace.

"One.... Two...." Niall grips the pole tightly and pulls it out just before he would have said Three and the merman's scream echoes against the cliffside. The pole comes free with a sickening suction sound and the wound starts bleeding more than is probably healthy. The merman doesn't make any other sounds when his scream dies out and when Niall throws the pole away and looks at Liam's face he notices that it's completely slack.

"Fuck. You've passed out, I don't... I don't know how to deal with this." Niall mutters out loud before he strips off his shirt and stretches it enough to wrap around the back of Liam's tail. He pulls it tight around the front and grabs a stick, turning it into a large sort of tourniquet. He reaches into his backpack with one hand and comes out with the rope that he wraps around Liam's tail and ties to the stick to keep it tightly in place.

His shirt is quickly turning red with blood, but it seems to be slowing the bleeding a bit, so Niall leaves it along and scuttles along the sand to sit beside Liam's head. Niall grabs Liam's face between his and thinks for a moment about how absolutely crazy this morning is. All he'd wanted to do was take Rusty for a walk and somehow he'd stumbled upon a freaking mermaid, of all things. And here he is, about to slap said mermaid to try and wake him up to see how he's doing. Niall blinks down at the merman's face and thinks for a crazy second that Liam's probably the hottest thing Niall's ever seen, but he shakes his head and focuses back on the task at hand.

He tries to gentle pat at Liam's face at first and that doesn't do anything. He tries a little harder, shaking Liam's shoulders a bit as well, but that doesn't do anything either. He winces.

"I'm so sorry for this." He whispers before soundly slapping the merman on the cheek opposite to his head wound. The merman's eyes flash open and he sits up suddenly. Smacking his forehead directly with Niall's nose. A crack resounds around inside Niall's skull for a second before the wave of pain hits and he makes a strangled screaming sound, bringing his hands up his now bleeding and broken nose.

Niall manages a mangled version of "Holy shit I'm never doing that again." and he feels the merman's hands grabbing his biceps and he opens his eyes to see the merman's brown eyes staring at him with wide eyes. the hands on his bicep are rather large, and rather warm, and Niall kind of thinks he should shake his head to clear his thoughts but there's a blossoming headache happening in the front of his brain and he knows he'd regret doing that. Even breathing hurts right now.

"You are bleeding." Liam says and Niall tries to give him an incredulous look behind his hands. He can feel blood dripping down his chin and chest.

"You broke my nose." He tries to say but it doesn't quite come out and Liam's head tilts to the side exactly like Rusty's does when he hears a noise he doesn't quite know. Niall lets go of his nose with one bloody hand and blindly reaches around in his bag for one of the clean rags he'd nabbed. He pushes it against his nose, trying to ignore the pain and focusing on stopping his own bleeding now and motions with a flailing hand down at Liam's tail. He doesn't try to talk again.

"You... I don't know what you've done to my tail." the merman frowns and Niall tilts his head back, feeling warm blood slide down the back of his throat and trying not to gag at the iron taste.

"Blee'in' like crazy. I sto'ed it." He tries and Liam seems to understand because he looks down at his tail again before looking back up at Niall and giving him a small cautious smile.

"Thank you, for removing the pole." Niall gives him a bloody thumbs up and Liam glances out at the ocean for a second his eyes unreadable before he look back at Niall.

"I must go now." He says and Niall doesn't really know how to react. He knows he's gotta get home and have his mum look at his nose to see if he needs to go to the doctor about it, and Liam's still got tons of little injuries all over him that he said his Healers could fix but Niall kind of doesn't want Liam to just disappear. He want's to make sure Liam's alright.

The merman leans away from Niall and Niall reaches out a hand and grabs his wrist. The merman flinches for a second at how quick Niall had grabbed him and Niall pulls the rag away from his face. His nose is still bleeding but it's slowed down and so he tries to speak again and his voice sounds funny but at least he can get some words out.

"Wait. I... I wanna see you again. When you're better. I wanna make sure you're okay."

The merman gives him a confused look.

"You're a very peculiar human." Niall tries to laugh but it hurts and so he ends up groaning and clutching the rag to his face again for a moment. The merman looks like he wants to reach out but he stops himself.

"Will you come back here? So I can see that you're okay?"

The merman stares into his eyes for a second before slowly dipping his head in a nod.

"I will return in the next moon cycle, when the moon is as it shall be tonight." Liam says and Niall gives him a squinting look.

"So.... The next time the moon is covered? Like a new moon? So in a month?" He asks and Liam shrugs.

"If that is how you humans explain it. Then yes. In a month. The next time that the moon is not in the sky, like it won't be tonight. I will come back to this beach. You will come alone. No other humans are allowed to come."

Niall grins, and knows he definitely has some blood on his teeth but he holds out a hand.

"Let's shake on it." Liam gives him a confused look so Niall puts the rag down and grabs at Liam's hand, pulling it towards him so he can clasp it in his own hand and shake it in a handshake.

Liam looks between their hands and Niall's eyes with a furrowed brow "You are quite definitely a peculiar human." He mutters before he pulls himself up onto his elbows and manages to turn himself so he can roll the short way into the water.

It's a sort of awkward progression, but Niall watches as Liam finally disappears under the water and he sighs for a second before realizing that that too hurts his nose and he stops. He doesn't know how he's going to explain his broken nose to his mum, but he's looking forward to next month. Hopefully Liam does show up, so he can see him again. Maybe Niall can even convince the merman to become his friend.

He packs up the randoms bits and bobs into his back and makes his slow way back home, the blood drying on his chin, neck, and chest in the morning sunlight.


End file.
